Sunday, January 22, 2012

Cardinal

This is a painting I completed a month ago. A male cardinal rests on a branch in front of a straw colored sky.

This painting is a large acrylic, 16" x 40" on gallery-wrapped canvas. I got so much positive feedback from my robin on a wire painting that I decided to do another bird painting.

Here is a close-up of the cardinal. We have quite a few cardinals that visit our 298798 bird feeders that Jerry obsesses over.

I will have to paint a female cardinal sometime as well. They are quite spectacular. Just like my desert, the female cardinals have a subdued but no less impressive beauty. Instead of smacking you in the face with their attractiveness, they lure you in and make you work a bit harder to fully appreciate their delicate beauty. The female cardinal does not have the bright red body plumage of her male counterpart, but she shares the red/orange beak and a faint hint of red in her feathers. She stands proud and lovely without stealing the show.